


Trust Me

by SugdenLovesDingle



Series: Aaron week 2017 [1]
Category: Emmerdale
Genre: Aaron is a softie, Aaron plus dogs, Fluff, M/M, the ultimate weakness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-06
Updated: 2017-11-06
Packaged: 2019-01-30 02:59:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,908
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12644775
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SugdenLovesDingle/pseuds/SugdenLovesDingle
Summary: Aaron Week Day 1: Write a cute Aaron scene + pets





	Trust Me

“Hey there, come on. I won’t hurt you. It’s alright.”

Aaron was sitting cross legged on the ground in front of the portacabin, holding out a piece of his sandwich to try and get the stray dog that’s been hanging around the scrap yard for months now to come to him.

The dog slowly crept forward, the temptation of the food too strong to resist.

“Yeah, that’s it. Come on. There’s plenty more where that came from. Come get it.” Aaron said, doing his best to stay as still as possible to not scare the dog.

With Robert in meetings with a new client in Leeds for the day, Liv on a school trip to Rome for three more days and Adam out on a scrap run, he was alone at the yard for the next few hours. And as always when things were quiet, this black and white mess of matted fur and mud showed up, looking for food.

Aaron had taken to keeping a few tins of dogfood in the portacabin, hidden under his desk in a plastic bag and always made sure to leave some food out for the dog before he went home in the evenings. The plastic bowl was always empty in the morning. Robert had figured out what he was doing in no time and had teased him for being so soft but Aaron had seen him check the bowls in the morning and put out fresh water almost every hour on hot days.

They had adopted this dog, in a way, or it them, but still it never got close enough for anyone to touch it. Aaron was determined to change that sooner rather than later.

“Good girl, come on, come get it. Robert makes good sandwiches. You know he does.” Aaron said softly as the dog came closer.

“Come on, it’s just you and me now. It’s ok. Come get your lunch.”

Slowly the dog came closer and very carefully took the piece of bread from Aaron’s outstretched hand and instead of running back to her hiding place like usual, she only took a few steps back and picked the bacon from the bread and ate it.

Aaron smiled.

“Good girl. Do you want more? I have more.” He tore another chunk off his sandwich and held it out to the dog, who eagerly took it this time. “Yeah that’s it. You like that don’t you?”

The dog came a little closer again, giving him an expectant look. He decided to try and lure her a little closer by not holding his hand out quite as far. Little by little he fed her his entire lunch. He knew he was going to regret it in a few hours but couldn’t bring himself to care.

“Sorry girl. That was the last of it.” Aaron said, holding his hands out for the dog to inspect. She sniffed his hands, even went as far as licking the crumbs off of one of them while allowing Aaron to scratch under her chin with the other.

“See? I’m not that scary after all.” He said as the dog leaned in to his touch. She came closer and let Aaron stroke her back while sniffing around him looking for more food.

“Are you still hungry? Maybe I should text Robert to bring some more food for you. Proper dog food. The good stuff.”

Aaron took his phone out of his pocket, the movement startling the dog slightly.

“It’s ok. It’s just a phone. It’s not scary. It won’t hurt you.” He said and held his phone out towards the dog who sniffed it slightly before jumping and running away when it rang. Aaron silently cursed himself for not putting it on silent.

“Hey.” He sighed as he answered the call.

“Hey. Are you ok?” Robert asked. “You sound tired.”

“I’m fine. I was just sort of making progress with that dog when you rang.”

“Oh she’s back?”

“Yeah, she showed up earlier. Watched me work I suppose when Adam left. Then we shared my lunch.”

Robert chuckled.

“You mean she had your sandwich and you’re hungry now?”

“Maybe a little.” Aaron admitted laughingly. “Where are you? Still in Leeds?”

“No I’m almost at the yard. I thought you could just lock up and meet me at the main road in 10 minutes and we can make the most of an empty house for the rest of the day.”

Aaron groaned.

“Don’t tempt me.”

“Why not? The perks of being your own boss is that you get to decide when you work and when you go home early.”

“I know. But Adam’s out on a run and I have a ton of paperwork to catch up on.”

“Pack it up and take it home. We’ll do it tonight.”

“You know we won’t do anything if we take it home.”

“Are you really turning down an afternoon in bed for paperwork? Who are you and what have you done with my husband?”

“Just get over here and do some work, you slacker.” Aaron laughed and ended the call when he saw Robert’s Porsche driving onto the yard.

“You’re calling me a slacker when you’re sitting here on your arse doing nothing?” Robert said, getting out of the car.

“Lunch break.” Aaron replied and let Robert pull him to his feet, greeting him with a kiss when he was upright again.

“Dog break more like.” Robert teased and glanced around the yard. “Where is she?”

“Don’t know. She ran off when you called. She let me pet her though.”

They walked into the portacabin where Robert made tea for the both of them while complaining about the new client.

“They spoke to Jimmy on the phone apparently. I don’t know why he didn’t go to that meeting himself. All I heard this morning was mister King said this, mister King said that.”

“Did you get the contracts signed at least?”

“NO.” Robert said, exasperated. “They wanted to look things over again because mister King apparently gave them different rates over the phone.”

Aaron let Robert rant for a while as he drank his tea and tried to get himself in the right headspace to deal with invoices and receipts. He was sat with his back towards the door that they, since it was still warm enough out, hadn’t bothered to close to let some much needed fresh air into the portacabin.

“Aaron.” Robert hissed, just as Aaron had gotten started on a tax form. “Aaron!”

“What?”

“Look.” Robert said, nodding at the door.

Aaron followed his line of sight and turned around. The dog from the yard was standing with her front legs inside the portacabin and her hind legs still on the steps in front of it. As if she was trying to decide whether or not to go in.

“Hey sweetie, do you want to come hang out with us in here now?”

One hind leg joined the two front legs inside the cabin.

“Come on, it’s ok.” Aaron said, slowly turning his chair around and patting his thighs.

The dog seemed to hesitate. Lifting her hind leg up a few times but putting it back down on the step again.

“Maybe we should ignore her?” Robert suggested. “Pretend we’re not watching her so it’s less scary for her to come in?”

“What, you think she has stage fright?”

Robert shrugged.

“Maybe.”

Aaron rolled his eyes and leaned forward.

“Come on girl. Come on in. Robert’s not nearly as big of a prat as he seems.”

Robert snorted.

“Cheers.”

Aaron grinned at him and looked away from the door just as the dog decided she wanted to come in after all. She carefully walked into the portacabin and sniffed around the desks before settling down under Adam’s desk at Aaron’s feet.

“Aaron Dingle the dog whisperer.” Robert said after a few minutes of stunned silence.

Over the next few weeks, it seemed to become the new normal for the dog to wander into the portacabin at some point during the day and settle down in a quiet corner. Usually at Aaron’s feet, sometimes at Robert’s and even Adam and Jimmy had seemed to pass her test.

They had taken to leaving the portacabin open at night so she could go inside if she wanted to and put an old blanket on the floor as a makeshift dog bed. They’d even talked about naming her.

_“No Game of Thrones characters!”_

_“Arya is a good name Aaron.”_

It was getting more and more difficult for them to leave the scrapyard in the evenings without the dog. She’d come in for food and a nap and sometimes even a cuddle. But everyday around 5pm when they were packing up their stuff to go home, she’d slip out and watched them drive off from a distance, following them out to the main road until they were out of sight.

Every day Aaron wished she would follow them home.

“I’ll be home soon. Do you want me to pick up some Chinese? Or are you in the mood for pizza? Liv’s out so we can get the mushroom one.”

“I don’t care. You decide.” Aaron told his husband over the phone. He was about to head home, tidying up around the portacabin before he left or Nicola would have a go at him again.

“I’m just driving past that Thai place you like now. How about Thai?” Robert suggested.

“Yeah Thai is fine. I’m just closing up here. I’ll see you at home ok?”

“Alright. Love you. And give Leia a cuddle from me.”

Aaron rolled his eyes at the name Robert had chosen for the dog. They’d been arguing about it for days and Aaron hadn’t been able to think of something himself, so it had stuck.

“Alright. Love you too. Soft lad.” He said and hung up, chucking his phone on the desk and clearing away the books.

As if she knew he was about to leave and wanted to say goodnight, Leia trotted into the portacabin.

“Hey girl. Give me a minute and I’ll put some food out for you.”

He opened a tin of dogfood and put its contents in one of the plastic bowls they’d bought for her and poured some fresh water in the other, but when he turned around and put the bowls down, the dog was gone.

“Oh well… goodnight to you too then.” Aaron mumbled and grabbed his keys before turning off the lights and leaving the door open just far enough for Leia to slip in during the night.

He got into his car, started the engine and wanted to drop his phone on the dashboard, only to realise he’d left it on the desk inside. He was tired and wanted to go home and considered leaving it where it was but he knew he’d miss it if he did, so decided to go get it after all.

When he returned to his car and got back in he nearly had a heart attack when he felt a wet nose nudge his hand from the backseat.

“Leia?!”

The dog happily wagged her tail and decided to climb onto the passenger’s seat and make herself comfortable.

“Do you want to come home with me? Is that it?” Aaron asked her. “Well, alright then.” He said and took a quick photo of her and sent it to Robert.

> One more for tea tonight. x


End file.
